


Present for the Princess

by dixid



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-25
Updated: 2011-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-12 21:24:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/129234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dixid/pseuds/dixid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Puck is obsessed with finding the perfect present for the Glee gift exchange.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

He was standing in the card shop waiting for his sister to pick out a Birthday card for their Mom when he found the answer to his dilemma. As soon as Rachel had brought the "Winter Celebration" secret gift exchange for the Glee Club, Puck had known it was a bad idea. And when he'd drawn Hummel's name out of that ridiculous hat, he was certain it was the worst idea ever.

It wasn't that he disliked the smaller boy; they were on significantly less hostile terms since Puck had stopped throwing him in the dumpsters on a regular basis. Once he'd cowed the rest of the sports teams into aiming their slushies away from the Gleeks, their interaction had become almost friendly. Or as friendly as you could get with a guy who routinely insulted your haircut, your clothes, your music choices, and your intelligence. The insults didn't faze him anymore. Once he'd started paying attention to the diva's body language instead of his words, he'd seen the verbal missiles for what they were, an attempt to keep anyone from getting too close. That summed up the entire problem with the gift exchange; what do you get for an almost-friend who regularly told you that you were the "biggest fashion disaster since the invention of stirrup pants"?

Puck knew that getting Hummel anything remotely related to fashion or music would be a disaster, particularly within the limits of what they were allowed to spend on their gift exchange. He'd considered asking Mercedes to help him pick out a fashion magazine subscription; after all she'd know best which ones the fashionista already subscribed to, but that seemed like an easy out. For reasons Puck refused to examine too closely, he wanted to pick out the present on his own. But more than that, he wanted Kurt to like his present, and know that he'd put some thought into it. Unfortunately that was as far as he'd gotten, thinking about what to buy Kurt, so far he hadn't found anything he'd liked. He only had a few more days before the Glee Winter Party, and he was starting to panic. At least during his unsuccessful shopping efforts he'd been able to knock out all of the Hanukkah presents for his family and his mom's birthday present. Now if his little sister would just decided on a birthday card, he could get back to obsessing over Kurt's present.

He looked around trying to spot her in the mass of holiday shoppers. While he'd been daydreaming she'd moved off to look at some chachkies. Swerving around a table of singing reindeer, he reached her side and followed her gaze to the display that had caught her eye. Perched on the shelf in front of her was a line of coffee mugs with quotes on the front. One in particular caught his attention. It was double the size of a regular coffee mug, on the front in hot pink letters it said: "If the tiara fits, wear it." Puck snickered, thinking of how Kurt's had been rendered carless when his Dad found his tiara collection.

Abruptly hit with inspiration, he lifted the mug off the shelf for a closer look. Behind the regular mugs was a line of matching travel mugs, perfect for Kurt's requisite morning coffee. Kurt was a big was a fan of frou-frou coffee blends. The Hummel kitchen had a coffee marker that Puck suspected had an instruction manual the size of textbook. According to Finn, Kurt was the only one in the house who could use it properly and he made a different flavor of coffee daily. Puck had to admit that whatever spewed out of the machine smelled wonderful, but he preferred his daily caffeine allotment in the form of Mt. Dew.

Having decided that the travel mug was a good starting point for Kurt's present, Puck looked down at the other items on display. Off to one side was a group of small plaques, and one caught his eye.

"I'm fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could rule the world"

If Kurt Hummel had a motto, Puck was certain that this would be it. He'd never met someone who conveyed themselves with such moxie, even in spite of the hazing he'd endured. Grabbing the little wall hanging, he steered his sister toward the registers.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Puck finds new things to worry about after he finds Kurt's gift.

Puck had been preoccupied for weeks about finding Kurt the perfect gift for the Glee gift exchange. Once he'd bought and wrapped the gift, he thought he would have been worry-free. Instead he was worried that Kurt would think he was mocking his tiara collection. Now he was questioning his choice of presents, as well as his sanity. Why was he so concerned about what Kurt would think anyway? When did the other boy's opinion become so important to him? And why couldn't he have just gotten Finn's name in the damned gift exchange?

As if taking three weeks to decide on the actual gift wasn't lame enough, Puck had decided his gift wrapping skills would never pass muster with Hummel so he'd spent all afternoon looking for a gift bag that he thought Kurt would like. He'd finally settle on a black and white bag with a fancy looking scrollwork pattern. It had fluffy black trim that his mom had called marabou. Knowing Kurt wasn't religious he'd passed on the overly sentimental holiday cards and chosen a blank card with a black and white snowflake graphic on the front.

Now he had to come up with something to write inside the card that let Kurt know that he wasn't making fun of his tiaras. Puck didn't care if he wanted to collect tiaras or trains, tigers or teacups, he just wanted Kurt to be who he was and not let anyone change him. Besides, if any dude could work a tiara, it was Hummel. Now he just had to find a way to put that in writing without sounding like a girl. Why the hell didn't Hallmark have a "so what if you're a dude and you like wearing a tiara, I still want to be your friend" collection? They didn't have anything that even came close to saying that; he'd looked. Twice. He sat staring at the blank card until his mom finally suggested searching out quotes on the internet. Perhaps if he couldn't find the right words to say, he could borrow someone else's words for inspiration? A quick google search later, he'd found the perfect quote and wrote it inside the card. Under that he jotted down a few more lines and signed his name.

 _"If you want to look like the people next door, you're probably smothering yourself and your dreams." ~Clive Barker_

 _Don't let anyone try to change you Princess, you're perfect just the way you are. - Puck_

He thought it was a good balance between sincere and irreverent. Kurt usually got squinty-eyed and glared whenever Puck called him Princess. But that never stopped Puck from using the nickname. It fit him, just like Aretha was the perfect nickname for Mercedes. Most of the people in Glee wouldn't tease him for fear of either hurting his feelings, or because they feared the verbal backlash that would be aimed their way.

Puck enjoyed the verbal back and forth warfare of his conversations with Kurt. Like a high speed game of air hockey, he was never sure where his opponent would land a shot. Even though he normally lost to the gleek, the sporadic win filled him with enough joy to make the regular losses worthwhile. And if he was honest with himself, each of their encounters had his adrenaline pumping as much as any win on the football field or rendezvous with a Cheerio. That was a fact he'd been trying not to examine too closely, but there was no use denying it.

Standing up from the table he tucked the card into the giftbag and headed upstairs to apparently further obsess over Kurt. He'd be glad when this gift exchange was over tomorrow, maybe after it was finished he'd get a decent night's sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurt's worried about the gift echange too.

Kurt placed the festively wrapped box carefully on the shelf in his locker. He still wasn’t completely certain that the gift would be appropriate, but with the Glee gift exchange only hours away, it was either this or a gift card. And while Kurt acknowledged that gift cards were generally more useful to him than whatever fashion atrocity was forced on him by misguided loved ones, he’d wanted this gift to be more personal than a simple piece of plastic.

When he’d drawn Puck’s name out of the hat, he’d thought that his superior gift giving skills were going to be challenged. The club had set up ridiculously rigid budget guidelines for the gift exchange. And really, had Mr. Schue needed to single him out when he was discussing the spending limit? But he’d agreed to keep to within the limit, so as tempting as it had been to give Puck’s wardrobe a makeover, clothing wasn’t an option. Besides, he didn’t think Noah would appreciate the gesture in light of his verbal barbs about his usual clothing choices.

After a few hours of window shopping on the net didn’t pan out Kurt decided he needed a better plan. Normally he enjoyed the gift giving process immensely. He kept a detailed notebook with pictures of gift ideas, and had a folder of bookmarks on his computer for each person he regularly bought gifts for; which until recently was mainly his Dad and Mercedes. None of his normal methods were working for Puck’s gift though. The problem was that he tried to give gifts that showed how much he cared about his family and friends. He wasn’t always great about verbally conveying what he felt, unless he could sing it, but he did give great gifts. With Puck he wanted the gift to say “Thanks for stopping the incessant bullying. Maybe you’re tolerable after all, and I wouldn’t completely mind if you wanted to be my friend”.

Fearing a repeat of the confrontation with Finn regarding Sam, he was over-thinking every idea he’d come up with. He was afraid that anything he chose would be viewed as too “gay”. He supposed there was still some lingering resentment on his part for that entire fiasco. He could only imagine if Finn thought that he was crushing on Puck. Not that he was. At all. He wasn’t even close to Kurt’s type. He doubted that the boy owned clothing that wasn’t 100% cotton. Although he could grudgingly admit that Puck made jeans and t-shirts look almost alluring. Almost.

Subsequently the gift couldn’t be too personal, but Kurt refused to let it be too impersonal either. He felt as if he was on a precipice and choosing the wrong present would cause him to plunge to his death. Perhaps he was being overly dramatic, but he and Puck had made a tentative peace, he didn’t want to endanger it by giving him a poorly chosen gift.

Kurt felt that finding the right present had more to do with the person receiving the gift than the one giving it, so he decided to write out everything he knew about Puck to identify his interests. Hopefully something on the list would give him an idea. A few minutes later Kurt looked down at a list of a dozen items and began to weed through the ones that were unacceptable.

As he finished narrowing down his list his attention kept being drawn to the line that read “Jewish Songwriters/Performers”. Possibly it drew his imagination because music was one of the few things they had in common, but Kurt had always been secretly impressed with the amount of time and effort Puck spent searching out Jewish musicians. He had vaguely wondered once where Puck found his information, if there was a reference book or if he’d just relied on Wikipeida. Curiosity momentarily won him over and he typed in a search online.

After an hour engrossed in online research, Kurt finally had a plan.


	4. Chapter 4

Kurt thought that this was probably the most time he’d ever spent on a present for a gift exchange. Once he’d gotten the idea, he spent hours completing the present. It had been fun, and it took his mind off the endless holiday dramas that inevitably cropped up within the Glee club. After he’d wandered around the internet trying to figure out where Puck came up with his seemingly endless list of Jewish musicians, Kurt had been inspired. What if he put together a reference book for Puck to pull those songs from?

Not content with just an ordinary notebook, Kurt had ordered a black distressed leather 3-ring binder with a zipper. Then he’d had Puck’s name embossed on the front cover. He’d divided it into three tabbed sections; artists, music and writing. Under the artist tab he’d devoted a page to every prominent Jewish musical artist he could find. He listed their major works and included a brief biography. If he found a picture online, he included that as well. Under the music section he put sheet music for each song listed on the in the previous section and added CD holders that contained a mix CD from each artist. He created labels for each CD, with the songs listed for easy reference. The last section in the binder was the easiest. He’d simply put in blank sheet music paper, so Puck would have someplace to store his own arrangements.

He figured he was slightly over the spending limit but in his mind the shipping charges didn’t count. And he’d had the CDs and CD holders on hand, so they didn’t count toward the final cost either. It wasn’t like Schue was going to verify their receipts.

So he’d splurged a little on having it personalized that was no one’s business but his own. If pushed on the issue he’d swear to Prada he’d found a great deal online. One day “online-only” sales were great for plausible deniability when you overspent, not that Kurt would know anything about that. As he wrapped the gift he scolded himself for his wild imagination, no one was going to question him about how much he spent. He just hoped Puck liked it.


End file.
